Yahoo is getting a new logo

By Brandon Griggs, CNN

Updated 4:35 PM ET, Thu August 8, 2013

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds.

Photos: Tech logos, new and old

Tech logos, new and old – Yahoo unveiled its simple new logo on Thursday September 5, after 30 days of showing runner-up logos that didn't make the cut. The overall the look is cleaner and thinner, and it is a new sans-serif typeface. The logo is still purple, though a shade darker, and features all the usual uppercase letters in the same order finished off by the signature exclamation point.

Hide Caption

1 of 12

Photos: Tech logos, new and old

Tech logos, old and new – Yahoo announced last month that it would unveil a new corporate logo -- the first such change since the company was founded 18 years ago. Take a look at other tech companies that have changed their logos over the years:

Hide Caption

2 of 12

Photos: Tech logos, new and old

Tech logos, new and old – In 2009, America Online developed a simple logo that can be incorporated onto different backgrounds, as seen on this large banner at the AOL headquarters.

Hide Caption

3 of 12

Photos: Tech logos, new and old

Tech logos, new and old – Jon Miller, former chairman and CEO of AOL, is photographed with the logo the company used from 1996 to 2005.

Hide Caption

4 of 12

Photos: Tech logos, new and old

Tech logos, new and old – E-commerce company eBay keeps its bright, primary colors of the former logo with the current logo that was introduced in 2012.

Hide Caption

5 of 12

Photos: Tech logos, new and old

Tech logos, new and old – Here's eBay logo with its bright, overlapping letters that was used from 1995 to 2012.

Hide Caption

6 of 12

Photos: Tech logos, new and old

Tech logos, new and old – A man looks at a computer monitor showing the old and new Twitter logos. The social networking company dropped the name and now uses the bird image alone.

Hide Caption

7 of 12

Photos: Tech logos, new and old

Tech logos, new and old – Twitter's logo before the bird was added in 2010.

Hide Caption

8 of 12

Photos: Tech logos, new and old

Tech logos, new and old – In 2012, software company Microsoft adopted a new logo using the design of the old Windows logo.

Hide Caption

9 of 12

Photos: Tech logos, new and old

Tech logos, new and old – Founder Bill Gates with the Microsoft logo that was created in 1987 and is still used on some of the company's products.

Hide Caption

10 of 12

Photos: Tech logos, new and old

Tech logos, new and old – The current Xerox logo is displayed at the Macworld iWorld 2012 conference. Xerox is well known for photocopiers and printers. It also handles digital production printing.

Hide Caption

11 of 12

Photos: Tech logos, new and old

Tech logos, new and old – The Xerox logo from 1971 to 2008.

Hide Caption

12 of 12

Story highlights

Yahoo will unveil a new corporate logo September 4

The new look will retain the purple color and, yes, the exclamation point

Yahoo will display a different variation of the logo for each of the next 30 days

Under CEO Marissa Mayer, Yahoo might still be trying to shed its image as a relic of the 1990s Internet era.

But hey, it's getting a new logo!

Yahoo announced Wednesday that it will unveil a new corporate logo September 4 -- the first such change since the company was founded 18 years ago. The new look will retain the current purple color scheme and, yes, its trademark exclamation point. Yodel away, Yahoo fans.

"Over the past year, there's been a renewed sense of purpose and progress at Yahoo!, and we want everything we do to reflect this spirit of innovation," Chief Marketing Officer Kathy Savitt wrote in a blog post. "While the company is rapidly evolving, our logo — the essence of our brand — should too."

To build some buzz around the new logo, the Internet company will display a different variation of the logo on its homepage and throughout its network in the United States for each of the next 30 days. The first example, shown above, opts for a more streamlined look, although the second "O" is larger than the first, reflecting -- in Yahoo's words -- the company's " fun, vibrant, and welcoming" character.

The current Yahoo logo sits on a sign outside its campus in Sunnyvale, California.

Mayer has been working to reinvent the struggling Yahoo since she took over leadership of the company in July of last year. In the past 12 months Yahoo has bought more than 16 startups, including the popular Tumblr blogging platform, and reinvigorated its older brands such as photo site Flickr.